Two-fluid simulations of Rayleigh-Taylor instability in a magnetized solar prominence thread II. Effects of collisionality

Abstract

In this work, we explore the dynamical impacts and observable signatures of two-fluid effects in the parameter regimes when ion-neutral collisions do not fully couple the neutral and charged fluids. The purpose of this study is to deepen our understanding of the RTI and the effects of the partial ionization on the development of RTI using non-linear two-fluid numerical simulations. Our two-fluid model takes into account neutral viscosity, thermal conductivity, and collisional interaction between neutrals and charges: ionization/recombination, energy and momentum transfer, and frictional heating. In this paper II, the sensitivity of the RTI dynamics to collisional effects for different magnetic field configurations supporting the prominence thread is explored. This is done by artificially varying, or eliminating, effects of both elastic and inelastic collisions by modifying the model equations. We find that ionization and recombination reactions between ionized and neutral fluids, if in equilibrium prior to the onset of the instability, do not substantially impact the development of the primary RTI. However, such reactions can impact development of secondary structures during mixing of the cold prominence and hotter surrounding coronal material. We find that collisionality within and between ionized and neutral particle populations play an important role in both linear and non-linear development of RTI, with ion-neutral collision frequency as the primary determining factor in development or damping of small scale structures. We also observe that degree and signatures of flow decoupling between ion and neutral fluids can depend both on the inter-particle collisionality and the magnetic field configuration of the prominence thread.

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• Large ion-neutral drift velocities and plasma heating in partially ionized coronal rain blobs
• Two-fluid implementation in MPI-AMRVAC, with applications in the solar chromosphere
• Ambipolar Diffusion in the Lower Solar Atmosphere: MHD Simulations of a Sunspot
• Shocks and instabilities in the partially ionised solar atmosphere
• Simulating Rayleigh-Taylor induced magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in prominences
• Mixing, heating and ion-neutral decoupling induced by Rayleigh-Taylor instability in prominence-corona transition regions
• Future Prospects for Partially Ionised Solar Plasmas: the Prominence Case
• Impact of the ambipolar diffusion in the structuration of the magnetic Rayleigh Taylor instability with oblique magnetic field
• The Rayleigh Taylor instability in partially ionized plasmas: ambipolar diffusion effects in the non linear phase